


Better Together

by CimmerianHuntress



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Established Relationship, Fluff, M/M, angsty at the end there
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-21
Updated: 2018-06-27
Packaged: 2019-04-25 18:06:38
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,536
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14384139
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CimmerianHuntress/pseuds/CimmerianHuntress
Summary: Established Klance fluff!





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> So I heard domestic + whump = gold, so here goes. This is for my giftee, @smolangrybeanyuriplisetsky for the @vldshipexchange! Fun stuff.

“There they go again.”

 

Pidge had leaned over to whisper it to Hunk sitting next to her, but Keith heard it anyway. It shook him out of the daze he’d fallen into, and he jerked his eyes away from Lance’s jawline to scowl across the table at her. Lance’s smile simply widened, because everyone knew that he’d been perfectly aware of Keith’s fawning and had be basking in it. He was no better than a cat in a sunbeam.

 

Shiro laughed quietly from his seat on the other side of Pidge, before clearing his throat to speak. “Okay team, we’ll arrive at the Betieri in two vargas.” He stood up and flattened his palms on the table. “I know we’ve already gone over the plan, but I’d like to go over it again before we take off.” The majority of the table groaned at this, since they really did know the plan inside and out by now. Shiro’s face split in a grin as he turned and walked out the dining room door, “Meet me on the bridge at 1500 hours!”

 

Lance slapped his hands down on the table before snatching Keith’s hand up from its resting place in his lap. “Well this lunch has been grand,” he directed at Pidge and Hunk, who watched them with barely concealed smiles, “but we have a date with fun and time’s a-wastin’.” At this, he hauls Keith out of his chair and drags him out the door.

 

Once they’re side-by-side, Keith adjusts his hand to link fingers with Lance. Warmth spreads across his cheeks, and he doesn’t even know why anymore. They’ve been dating for months now; why does he still get all flustered whenever Lance is touching him? Or looking at him? Or in the same room as him? This boy is going to be the death of him. His feelings were a whirlwind before he had made his attempt to confess to Lance, which had then turned into Lance confessing to him instead, followed by tears and plenty of high-strung laughs. They had pretty much been attached at the hip since, especially since Keith’s problems seemed less whenever Lance was around to make him feel like he was floating. He was so lucky he had this. These past months were probably the best of his life. His face involuntarily stretches wide in a smile and he turns to look at Lance, only to find him already watching him. At some point while he was thinking, Lance had brought them to a halt in the middle of the hallway.

 

Lance gently pulls Keith’s hand up to his mouth to kiss his knuckles. Lance’s eyes are full of affection as he continues to just watch Keith with a soft smile on his face.

 

Keith is content to just stare back, before he realizes that Lance’s smile is getting more and more amused. It’s only then that Keith realizes that Lance had said something, and Keith had completely missed it.

 

“...What?” Keith asks eloquently. Lance starts laughing, dropping his face in Keith’s shoulder as he attempts to gather himself. Once he’s no longer struggling to breathe, he leans up and draws Keith into a kiss with his free hand. Keith doesn’t hesitate to return it quickly opening his mouth to let Lance in. They eventually have to break for air, and Keith just smiles to himself as they rest their foreheads together and breathe.

 

“I asked if swimming sounds good to you.” Lance tells him with a huff. “Not that you were paying attention, but the pool is pretty great. The Alteans use it on the ceiling.” 

 

Keith felt his brain skid to a stop. “On... on the ceiling? Um...” He was quickly developing a fear for gravity-defying pools.

 

Lance laughed at him again. “We’re not gonna swim on the ceiling, don’t worry! It took me forever to find out how to lower it.” He looped his arm through Keith’s and continued leading him down the hallway towards their room, talking about his adventure with the pool the whole way. They changed into their swim trunks and as Lance led them to the pool, he continued to tell Keith stories about anything and everything, dancing seamlessly from one topic to the next.

 

Keith loved it when Lance told him stories. When they first started dating, Lance didn’t tell him stories for long. He always cut himself off, thinking he was being annoying or Keith just wasn’t interested. It wasn’t Keith’s fault that Lance was beautiful when he talked, or that he got distracted by the gleam in Lance’s eyes when he was truly passionate. 

 

The first time it happened, Lance slowed to a stop and seemed to curl into himself. Then Keith’s brow furrowed and he asked why he stopped, and that he wanted him to continue. Lance smile had been so bright, Keith made it his life’s mission to make him smile like that as often as possible.

 

As they walked into the pool, Lance wrapped up his story about the time he and Hunk surfed until sunset one night on the beach near his home, and how they had no regrets when they had to wake up for school the next day. Keith looked up at the pool, high above their heads and shimmering from the inside. Upon closer inspection, he realized there were small blue lights floating throughout the water, making the whole thing more magical. Then the lights in the room dimmed, leaving just the water’s luminescence, and the pool began to sink towards the floor.

 

…

 

Lance watched as Keith became transfixed with the water above them. He dimmed the lights and let the water speak for itself as it touched down on the floor. It was a huge box of water that could move up and down, so it stood just a little taller than them in its magical confines. It had taken him a while to get used to simply stepping into the wall of water and then swimming to the surface, but it really was quite cool.

 

Keith was standing before the wall, raising a hand and barely touching the surface. The light made his face glow and his eyes shine, and Lance found himself once again so happy that he had this. He had Keith, the boy he’d been pining after for years, the one that loved him back, the one that hadn’t left his side since he confessed. And while he didn’t fail to notice how often Keith simply watched him, he was also guilty of staring when his boyfriend’s beauty took him a bit off guard.

 

He shook himself and walked up behind Keith, wrapping his arms around his middle and nuzzling the side of his face. Keith let out a content huff, before Lance whispered in his ear:

 

“Big breath, babe.”

 

And shoved him face first into the wall of water.

 

…

 

And hour later, they could be found floating on their backs, holding hands and laughing. It was a little difficult to stay above water while desperately trying to breathe, but they managed. The door swished open and Hunk poked his head in, calling out that they needed to get ready for the mission review before leaving again. With a groan, Lance flipped backwards and under, diving until his feet touched the floor and he could walk out of the pool. He may or may not have put in extra effort to look cool while Keith was watching.

 

He needn’t have bothered, since Keith came stumbling out of the water is the least graceful display he’d ever seen from the guy. Anything looked good compared to that. Trying and failing to hide his smile, Lance strode to the wall and sent the pool back up to crazy Altean height.

 

Keith had a towel in his hair when Lance walked back over to him. He couldn’t help himself; he reached out and ruffled his hair with the towel. With a shriek, Keith’s hand landed on his face and pushed him away by his cheeks.

 

They wrestled until Keith had Lance in a headlock, and Lance had never been so turned on. His head was pinned against Keith Kogane’s chest, both half-naked, and he was living the dream. He draped his arms around his boyfriend’s hips, turning his face to press a kiss to his sternum.

 

This was met with a squeak from Keith, who dropped his arms to pull Lance back up to his mouth again. When they separated, they both realized they needed to stop getting distracted and start getting ready. Back at the room, they changed into their gear and Lance carefully brushed out Keith’s hair and tied it back for him. They bumped noses and headed to the bridge for the meeting.

 

The mission was simple, if not moderately difficult. The team was spread somewhat thin, with Lance and Keith infiltrating the base, Pidge running interference at the communications outpost, Hunk laying fire on the grounds crew, and Shiro roving the skies and taking out the reinforcements. This particular base wasn’t highly populated but also had many places to draw extra soldiers from, which is where Shiro, Hunk, and Pidge come in.

 

Lance and Keith had to get in and download information from the main computer, using a drive that Pidge designed. All they needed to do was plug it in; the drive did the rest itself. It took two minutes to finish, so they just had to protect it and blow the joint as they left.

 

Once Shiro finished reiterating this information, he dismissed the group to the Lions and wished everyone luck. In the hangars, Lance pulled Keith in for a kiss. It had become routine at this point, but it was a reassurance they both needed.

 

“See you on the ground,” Lance whispered, his lips inches from Keith’s. He smiled, and Keith followed suit, and they separated to their individual Lions. Once in the air, everyone confirmed the comms and split off to their respective posts. The planet was majorly forested, with tall trees and plentiful undergrowth. It was rainy and cold, and the clouds protected them from visual detection as Lance and Keith entered the atmosphere.

 

They had to land a couple miles away from the base in order to hide the Lions, and used small hovercrafts to cover the distance quickly. The base was in a clearing, with guards on the main entrance. They didn’t bother with them, instead circling around until they reached the vent that rose out of the side of the building. There was a reason he and Keith were the two infiltrating: they were the thinnest besides Pidge, who was needed to jam the emergency signals. 

 

Keith dug in with his knife and cut out a square for them to crawl through. It was small, but they could squeeze through. Keith went first with his knife to cut open the vent on the other end. Lance followed, getting his shoulders through the gap and army crawling after Keith. When they slipped out the other side, Keith pushed the grate back up against the wall, where anyone who looked twice would know something was wrong. 

 

They made quick work of dodging patrols and following the map to the control room. There, Lance readied his gun while Keith waited for the okay to open the door. With a nod from Lance the door sprung open, and Lance opened fire. Three perfect headshots, taking down the sentries before any of them could rise from their chairs. Keith followed him into the room and pushed the drive into the port. Immediately it started running it’s programming, thus triggering the intruder alarm. This was where things got hairy.

 

Lance shot Keith a smile, blowing him a kiss as he stepped out into the hallway. His bayard became his sniper rifle, and he laid out on the ground aiming down the long hallway. As planned, Keith covered the opposite end, which was much shorter. Not planned though, was Keith’s hand smacking Lance’s ass as he passed. Lance squeaked, shocked, before looking over his shoulder to glare at his boyfriend. All he got was a self-satisfied grin in return.

 

Footsteps pounding in the hall pulled Lance’s attention forward again, and he sighted through his scope just as soldiers turned the corner. He aimed and fired, aimed and fired, again and again and again, with an impressive accuracy rate. He lost himself in his skill, sparing no attention to anything else. It was Keith’s job to handle the rest. His intensity only ebbed when the sentries stopped coming, their manpower depleted.

 

With nothing else to shoot at, Lance came up on a knee and turned to see how Keith was doing. He had three more to go, with one on the end of his sword and another taking aim for his head. That wouldn’t do.

 

Lance took aim. He squeezed the trigger. 

 

His side exploded in pain. 

 

The last thing he saw as he crumpled to the floor was Keith’s scared face.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Don't worry, Lance isn't dead.  
> But Keith can't be sure of that.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, please note that I have no idea how major injuries work, so all of this is made up, fictional bs injury reactions. Nothing is accurate, I'm sure.

Keith watched in horror as Lance fell to the side. He distantly registered that he’d screamed Lance’s name, but didn’t get even a step towards him before the same soldier that shot Lance swiveled to shoot him, too.

 

In one fluid motion, Keith sunk into a crouch as the laser shots went over his head and ripped his sword out of the robot beside him. With his free hand, he unsheathed his dagger and chucked it as he rolled over the droid Lance downed with another perfect headshot.

 

Some of that skill must’ve rubbed off on Keith, since his own assailant dropped like a bag of rocks.

 

He was up and dashing to Lance’s side before the robot was fully down. He pulled his knife and sheathed it again as he kneeled next to Lance’s small form. He was curled on his side, his wounded side. Keith could see his blood pooling beneath him.

 

A small whine rumbled out of Keith as he rolled Lance gently onto his back. Only then did Keith realize the extent of the damage.

 

The blaster must not have been a standard issue, seeing as there was a gaping hole just under Lance’s ribcage. His white armor was missing a chunk and his black undersuit was torn. It was oozing blood much too fast for Keith’s comfort.

 

Keith frantically patted Lance’s cheek as he commed the team. 

 

“Lance is down, we’re going to need extraction.” He fought to keep his voice steady, but he could feel his panic rising like bile in his throat. Lance wasn’t responding.

 

“Keith, can you get yourselves to the main entrance?” Shiro’s voice rang in Keith’s ears as he tried to get enough air. How could they get to the entrance? Lance was down, he was dying, he had a hole in his side, he was bleeding everywhere, Lance couldn’t die, Keith loved him, he couldn’t leave, he needed to stay right here, they couldn’t-

“KEITH!” Shiro’s commanding voice snapped Keith out of his spiralling thoughts. “Keith, buddy, I need you to answer me, right now.” He was steady and sure, Shiro always had a plan, he’d get Lance out of this.

 

“I’m here. I’m sorry, I’m here, it’s just…” Keith tried to hold on to the rock that Shiro provided him. “Lance has a hole in his side, Shiro, he’s bleeding out, I don’t know what to do, what do I do, Shiro?”

 

“Whoa, whoa, calm down Keith.” Shiro spoke through the comms, and if Keith wasn’t freaking out at the moment he would have realized Shiro was definitely running on his end, and was occasionally speaking to others away from his microphone. “I need you to put pressure on the wound, okay? You know this stuff, we learned first aid at the garrison. Rip the bottom of his shirt and use it as a bandage, okay? I’m coming, hold on.”

 

Keith’s hands were shaking as he did as Shiro asked. He did learn this, but it was all shoved to the back of his mind in his shock. He used his Mamorite blade to carefully cut through Lance’s shirt, then tie it tighter around the wound.

 

It still oozed blood around the makeshift bandage.

 

“Okay, I did it Shiro.” Keith’s voice came out breathless and small, but Shiro huffed a quiet sigh of relief upon hearing him.

 

“Great, good job Keith.” Shiro was ready to talk him through this. “I need you to grab the drive from the control panel quickly, okay?”

 

Keith had completely forgotten why they were there in the first place. “Hold on,” he glanced down both hallways, and upon seeing no one dashed into the abandoned control room. The drive had been done for a while now, so he ripped it out and shoved it into his utility belt. “Got it.”

 

Shiro huffed again, and said, “Great, I need you to take him towards the exit now; can you do that?” Keith could hear the encouragement in his voice.

 

“I- Yeah, I can do that.” Keith knelt beside Lance, gently scooping his shoulders up in one arm and his knees up in the other. Lance was long and lanky, and slightly difficult to hold, but there was nothing in the universe that could keep Keith from resolutely carrying Lance toward safety. 

 

“Which way, Shiro?” Keith called out over the comms.

 

It was Pidge that answered, “Go straight down the corridor you’re in, and turn right when you have to.” Keith took off at a fast walk, turning where told. “It’s your third left past that, and then your fourth right. Stay by the door you run into until we come get you.”

 

“Got it, we’ll meet you there.” Keith’s voice came out oddly calm, even to his own ears. Maybe he was slipping a bit. But he had directions to follow, things to do to keep his brain occupied, and he didn’t have to think about the man in his arms that he loved so much.

 

Before he knew it, they had arrived at the door Pidge wanted him to wait behind. He told the team where he was, and they said to sit tight. Help was on its way.

 

It didn’t help Keith keep calm.

 

He leaned against a wall, and before he knew it he was sitting down with Lance in his lap. He could feel Lance’s small puffs of breath across his neck, from where Lance’s head rested on his shoulder. Nearly lifeless.

 

Lance could’ve died. He could still die. And Keith was supposed to just wait here and do nothing.

 

Lance was the best thing that had ever happened to Keith. He was loving and kind, and basically glued to Keith’s hip. Some people would call that clingy, but to be honest, it was Keith that wanted Lance around at all times of the day. Lance was just more than willing to accommodate him, and seemed to be able to read his non-verbal cues with a scary accuracy.

 

Keith felt understood whenever Lance was around, like some unknown pressure was taken off his shoulders. He didn’t need to be perfect, he didn’t need to hold back who he was or what he was thinking, and he could be completely honest and not have to worry about a negative reaction. It was so freeing, and he loved Lance dearly for that.

 

He also loved Lance for Lance. Smart, funny, kind, considerate, and lighthearted, but serious when the situation called for it. He was perfect to have by Keith’s side. Keith just wished he had told Lance how much he loved and valued him more often. 

 

Now he might not get the chance.

 

He didn’t even realize that there were tears streaming down his face until he needed to sniff back his now-runny nose. He didn’t want to let go of Lance in order to wipe his face, though.

 

He allowed the tears to come, allowed himself to break down in this Galra compound’s hallway, and whisper pleas into Lance’s hair. Pleas for him to wake up, to live, to stay with Keith and never leave him behind.

 

Keith’s whimpers stayed steady as he curled his body around his dying boyfriend. He barely noticed when the doors he was waiting for slid open to allow their other three teammates to enter. 

 

He cried out when Hunk pulled Lance from his arms, desperately trying to hold on. Then Shiro was there, pulling Keith’s face to his chest and embracing him as Keith let all of his tears go. He could scarcely hear Pidge telling Shiro they needed to hurry, before he was being scooped into a set of arms himself. He curled into Shiro broad chest as he ran for the lions.

 

Keith registered, in the back of his mind, that Shiro was laying him in the small bed at the back of the Black Lion and kissing his forehead before he left to pilot the lion. He vaguely heard that Red and Blue were following the group as they returned to the castle. He just knew he was very, very tired, and so lost, that he didn’t mind when sleep took him under its wing.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> He's a tired boy, he's been though a lot.  
> Keith's gonna take a nice nap, and then we can see how Lance is doing.  
> Please let me know what you think thus far! The good, the bad, and the ugly; I wanna hear it!

**Author's Note:**

> Please don't kill me. I promise there'll be a chapter two at least.


End file.
